Bus Life Ed. 12 - Double Duty
It’s true we have done #buslife before; however, we have not BOTH worked paying jobs with responsibilities while on the road. So this trip has been a new test period for us.
Last year, when we took our ~4 month trip, I quit my job before taking off; Jakers worked a PT schedule on the road, but I was mostly there for the adventure and looking for a change in my job sitch.
BUT this year, I have the work tax on my back as well. So we have had to adjust to BOTH working in a 160sqft space ~3 days / week. The schedule we set-up for this trip is to work M/T/Th full days, with Wednesdays and Fridays mostly off. Originally, we had been saving this time frame for heading to Peru, so when we changed plans, we compromised and added a little time to the exploration, but also added some work days.
So how do we do it?
It’s a continuous adjustment and learning effort, but we are managing. There are some things that we have figured out to make our lives a little easier!
Nice weather - this helps a LOT. If one of us is able to go outside - to a picnic table, our outdoor table, on a walk for a call, etc. But of course, this is not something in our control :) Cold days or rain days get tough.
HEADPHONES - ‘nuff said. Absolutely necessary for all forms of sanity!
Hotspot - see staying connected section below. This is a lifesaver & has really improved a lot in even the last year!
Coffee shops - we don’t use this option that often, but if we are in a city or near a city, I definitely prefer a coffee shop. Typically, Jakers takes over the desk we have in the bus and a full 8 hrs slouching on the bed is TOUGH.
Get creative & try things!
The most difficult part…
…about BOTH of us working from such a small space is when we have overlapping meetings. Jake has meetings at least 5 hrs/day, often more, & I lead team meetings multiple times a day. Being individual contributors would definitely make #buswork easier, but that’s not the situation we are in.
When it’s nice out, it’s not a problem & I will gladly take the outside space. But when it’s 30s or 40s out (as the last few days have been) or rainy (also as the last few days have been), it gets a little tougher. We have been able to block off the back bed space of the bus with a curtain to sort of quiet the sound. If we both put headphones in, we can usually make it work and still be able to talk and not interfere with each others calls. :D Definitely being in more of people and team management roles make the road a bit more challenging vs being able to just check-in and work on your own time.
Staying connected?
We really rely on hotspot for all of our working. We have tried wifi extenders, campground wifis, coffee shops, etc., but honestly, we find ourselves going back to our mobile hotspot EVEN when we are in places like a coffee shop. For some reason, it always seems to have issues with our work computers. Our Verizon plan does have limits to hotspot usage, but if we end up hitting that, we just buy more gigs. We have only had to expand from the 15MB once & I would say we both use a LOT of data with downloading, video calling, etc. Luckily, my work provides us with phones that have unlimited hotspot!
The one issue we have had with using hotspot was in Canada. My work phone didn’t have an international plan & our personal phones DID; however, hotspot was not included and our data allowance was reduced to almost nothing. This is one of the main reasons we bonsaied through Canada! Definitely suggest checking our your hotspot sitch or ensuring good wifi if you are traveling internationally.
East Coast Time
Working on the road definitely makes you move slower. Especially in the fall when the days are shorter and we are on east coast time, we essentially start the day 1-2 hours after the sun comes up and get off of work as the sun is going down. And we are not big fans of driving in the dark or trying to find camping in the dark :) It can be very challenging on dirt roads that possibly lead to nowhere.
If we did this short of trip again, we probably would take the first week totally off, so we could enjoy a bit of time without the stress of having to figure out a place to work from when you’re only a couple days from home. Now that we are out in the East Coast where our destination was set-on, being “stuck” for a couple days working from beautiful views of the Adirondacks isn’t so bad :)
Schedule Building
As mentioned, we are on a M/T/Th schedule right now. If looking at a part time schedule, I highly suggest piggy-backing days as much as you can. Also, coordinate your schedule wiht your travel buddy. Every other day schedules are the worst because you have to constantly be worrying about service. I think it’s also worth noting that we PREFER to stay in the woods vs at campgrounds. MAJORITY of our time on the road is off-grid, where service is typically spotty. When we find places off-grid in the woods WITH service, we get giddy, but it’s not that often & we also proceed with caution.
I also recommend being firm with your schedule. It’s easy to get pulled into “just a quick review on Wednesday”, but it adds a lot of stress to our day planning. Especially when many of our “off” days, we plan hikes and adventures that we cannot rely on having service.
ALSO, definitely think about check-out times with places you stay. What is annoying with campgrounds, is check-out is typically around Noon. For us, once we sign in to work around 8am, we typically don’t both have matching breaks where driving somewhere and checking out is easy. This definitely causes stress on work days! Which is why we have learned to either plan to stay multiple nights or avoid campgrounds altogether on work days.
Apps that help us
Harvest Hosts - this is the first trip where we decided to try Harvest Hosts. The nice part about Harvest Hosts is you are on someone’s property or business & can at least message the owners about service. Sometimes, people even offer up their wifi. Hosts are also usually pretty flexible with departure times.
Hipcamp - we haven’t used this a whole lot, but have found some GEMS through this. This is also people’s personal property you can “rent” essentially, but typically comes with a lot of privacy, and you also have access to message the hosts about the service situation. One of our favorite spots we have stayed all trip was a Hipcamp spot! Costs are set by the owner and are really all over the board. Folks also seem to be flexible with departure times.
REVIEWS - we have a few other apps/websites we like for finding camping (Free Roam, FreeCampsites.net, the Dyrt) and some even have cell service bars built into the review. So when someone writes a review, they can fill in how many bars of whatever carrier they have. This is HELPFUL, but not always that reliable. Often, the “free areas” are spread over many miles and reviews can be really outdated as well. Be a good person, leave reviews!!
Working on the Road
The nice part about working from the road is you can extend your trip and be wherever you want AS LONG as you have service, without depleting all PTO resources. We heavily rely on reviews and various apps to figure out if camping areas have any bars of service. Anything under 2 bars of Verizon service we usually steer clear from or go in with the expectation that we will need to leave early in the AM to find a place to park.
Something we have noticed in the east vs the west of the US is that places are much less reviewed on the apps we typically use (Free Roam, Dyrt, Free Campsites, etc). I’m not certain if that’s because these areas are less traveled in general or if there are other resources I don’t know about yet…
So this is how we manage. It’s not always stress free & it definitely causes tension once in a while (like when I want to make food & the stove is 2ft from Jake’s computer), but we make it work. The PROs of being on the road and extending our trip most definitely outweigh the challenges of it in our minds :) One day, when we can be part time permanently, we will really be cruising. #vroomvroom
Peace, love, and make that paper,
yo’ girl Jen (& my lovely travel pal) #chingching
